Great Tang princess

Chapter 179 The Summer Is Over

The number of the first batch of captives was not too large, about five hundred or so.

Li Yuechen asked Fulai to arrange a place for them to live first, and when everyone arrived, they could start building roads.

I estimated that it would be July or even August when it was delivered, so I informed Mangshan to burn more cement during this time to prepare for road construction in the future.

Then Li Yuechen went to the glass production workshop and asked them to make a simple level.

Now that the technology of glass is quite perfect, it is not too difficult to make a level.

It is nothing more than making a single-port glass tube first, plugging it with a wooden stopper after filling it with water, and then sealing it with wax. It should be able to be used for a long time.

Seeing that nothing was going on, Li Yuechen basically ran to the military prison every day, discussing the making of weapons and armor with the craftsmen.

Regarding the mask on the helmet, Li Yuechen adopted a design similar to that of a motorcycle helmet, which can be pushed up at ordinary times, and then pulled down when it is necessary to use it.

At the same time, there are also various protective gear, because there is no rubber in this era, so the production method of leather armor is used.

It is made of multi-layer pressed leather of various wild animals such as rhinoceros skin, elephant skin and crocodile skin, and the protective effect is quite good.

During the period of staying in the Military Weapons Supervisor, Li Yuechen also had a relatively full understanding of the cutting-edge technology of this era.

In fact, many of the things I imagined can be done in this era. The only trouble is that the cost cannot be reduced.

Among other things, let's take arrows as an example. The cost of an arrow is almost equal to a day's wages of a middle-class commoner!

You know, that's the price of an arrow!The cost is simply outrageous.

Of course, this is just one of the many things Li Yuechen learned during his time in the Military Weapons Supervision.

……

In the sweltering heat of June, Li Yuechen couldn't stand the heat, and went to swim in the Kyushu Pool every day as long as he had nothing to do.

Princess Xuancheng also brought Pei Qingwan over to play together, while Princess Yiyang and Shangguan Wan'er could only come over on their rest days.

At first, Pei Qingwan was a little embarrassed, but the most powerful thing about human beings is their ability to adapt.

After coming here a few times, he didn't care too much, and even took the initiative to play with Li Yuechen and Princess Xuancheng by splashing water on each other.

It's a pity that there are too many things going on in the court this summer, and Li Zhi and Wu Zetian didn't come here a few times, which made Li Yuechen feel somewhat regretful.

I don’t know if it’s because my mother thought that watching her daughter play in the water every day made her psychologically unbalanced. On June 23, she suddenly called Li Yuechen over to give her a lesson.

"Anyway, you are still an official of the imperial court now. It's fine if you don't share the worries of the imperial court. You just know how to play with water all day long. It's really a waste of your talent..." Wu Zetian sat behind the desk and lectured.

Li Yuechen felt a little aggrieved, he played with his wet hair and said, "But Auntie, I've done everything my child should do."

"Okay, now you have learned to talk back to me, right?" Wu Zetian asked with widened eyes.

"Don't dare, what A Niang said is that the child must keep the teachings in mind. Play less in the future." Seeing that the mother was really angry, she immediately admitted her mistake without dragging her feet in the slightest.

Seeing her daughter admitting her mistake, the mother seemed to be somewhat relieved, but she still snorted coldly: "It's all for playing, how decent is it to not cover your body in front of a servant?"

I'll go, bathing suits and naked clothes are two different things, okay?
"Aniang, they are all eunuchs, it doesn't matter!" Li Yuechen explained helplessly, "Besides, even if they are not eunuchs, they will definitely not be able to beat me!"

"I'm not talking about the eunuch, but your attitude!" Wu Zetian emphasized, "It doesn't matter if the eunuch sees it, but Chen'er, you have grown up, and you should pay attention to the precautions of men and women."

"Yes! My child will remember." Li Yuechen didn't want to bully his mother, anyway, she listened to what she said first, and her attitude was very important!
In the next few days, Li Yuechen didn't go swimming, but read and practiced calligraphy in Anfu Hall every day, which made his mother feel better.

The summer of this year has just passed, and people are even a little unresponsive.

……

On the fourth day of July, it is the end of summer heat.

The sky covered with dark clouds and light rain fell, marking the departure of summer.

After eating at noon, Li Yuechen took a walk in the hall, and then lay sideways on the corridor outside the hall, propping his head with one hand, staring at the sky in a daze.

Xiao He knelt beside her, admonishing in a low voice: "Your Highness, don't stay here too long, just in case you catch a cold..."

"It's okay, I haven't been sick for several years, and once in a while, I'll be fine once in a while." Li Yuechen waved his hand, "By the way, go and get me a canned orange."

Seeing that the persuasion was fruitless, Xiao He could only agree, and got up to open a can for her.

Li Yuechen stared at the sky in a daze while eating canned food, not to mention, this feeling was quite pleasant.

Perhaps because of the rain today, Princess Yiyang and Shangguan Wan'er obviously didn't want to stay longer at the newspaper office, and came back with oil-paper umbrellas shortly after noon.

Li Yuechen didn't say anything to the two who skipped work openly, but called them over to eat canned food together.

Then Princess Xuancheng and Pei Qingwan were called together, so five beauties of different ages sat in a row in the corridor, watching the raindrops fall from the sky while eating canned food.

Both Li Yuechen and Princess Xuancheng were sitting cross-legged, while the remaining three were still kneeling.

The raindrops beat rhythmically on the eaves, beams and the ground. Several people chatted and laughed with each other behind the rain, forming a cheerful landscape painting.

……

Two days passed in a blink of an eye, and Li Yuechen brought Fulai to Jiangzuojian after having lunch.

Hearing that they finally transformed the machine they were asked to make last time, Li Yuechen came over to check the results.

A craftsman sat on a chair, his feet kept pedaling.

And a round millstone connected by more than ten gears, large and small, was spinning rapidly.

An elderly craftsman brought Li Yuechen to the rapidly spinning millstone: "Your Highness, please see, using this to polish other utensils will greatly improve the efficiency."

As he said that, he picked up a piece of wood and moved over to it.

With the sawdust flying, the wood was polished into a hemispherical shape in a short while.

Li Yuechen took the polished wood from the craftsman, observed it carefully, then raised his head and asked, "I don't know carpentry, what do you think?"

"Returning to Your Highness, this method is very convenient. It is much easier to polish than manual work, but it is a bit troublesome to use, and you need to get used to it again."

"Hmm..." Li Yuechen nodded, "This thing can not only be used to polish wood, can it? What about iron?"

"Yes, it's more troublesome than wood, but much easier than manual work." The blacksmith next to him replied.

"That's good." Li Yuechen nodded, "By the way, isn't there another person in charge of drilling? Didn't you try it?"

The craftsman looked a little embarrassed: "I tried it, but there are still many problems to be solved."

Li Yuechen didn't blame him, but just smiled: "It's good for you to look at, I just put forward an idea, in the future, you still need to wait for yourself to keep trying."

"Yes!" The craftsmen saluted in unison, expressing their understanding.

After chatting for a few more words, Li Yuechen left the Craftsman Supervisor and went to the Military Weapons Supervisor next to him.

The mechanical compound bow is almost finished, but there are still some accessories missing.

The brushes on the nocking table are done, the sights are installed, and then the weight bars and stops.

The stopper is added to prevent the bowstring from vibrating excessively. In the future, it will generally be a rubber head. Here... only beef tendon can be used.

The rest is the arrow rack, which is directly installed on the right side of the bow body, and can hold ten arrows at a time.

When you want to shoot an arrow, you don't need to take it from the Hulu, just take it off the bow body.

Li Yuechen took a closer look at this unformed bow, and felt that it was two circles bigger than the future one, almost as big as the Manchu bow, or even bigger.

Regarding her question, the craftsmen could only explain with wry smiles: "Your Highness's divine power, if you don't make it bigger, I'm afraid you won't be able to meet His Highness's requirements."

"Okay, it's fine, we'll talk about it when it's done." Li Yuechen nodded. Anyway, it's only as big as the Olympic archery competition, so it can still be used.

……

At the end of July, the first batch of prisoners from the front line was sent over. Li Yuechen asked Fulai to arrange them to Jixianfang first, and then ran to the guardhouse.

Seeing Li Yuechen approaching, Geng Yunqiang greeted him immediately: "I have seen Her Royal Highness!"

"Excuse me!" Li Yuechen jumped off his horse, "Five hundred prisoners were sent back from the front line, you take some people to watch, and come with me by the way."

"Yes!" Geng Yunqiang agreed, "How many people does His Highness need?"

"Don't ask me, how many people do you think can stand up to five hundred unarmed prisoners?" Li Yuechen asked back.

Geng Yunqiang thought for a while: "One hundred people are enough!"

After quickly selecting a hundred people, Geng Yunqiang followed Li Yuechen on his horse and went straight to Jixianfang.

Pedestrians on the streets of Luoyang saw more than a hundred heavily armed soldiers passing by surrounded by a little girl in red on a horse, and they all stepped aside one after another.

After arriving at Jixianfang, Laicao had already greeted him at the door, and after saluting, Li Yuechen was about to go inside.

"Your Highness, don't go in, lest these lowly people offend His Highness." Laicao reminded.

"It's okay, it's not you!" Li Yuechen smiled, raised his legs and entered Jixianfang.

Laicao hurriedly followed, smiling all over his face: "That is, rest assured Your Highness, the villain will definitely protect His Highness..."

At this moment, five hundred captives had already gathered in the courtyard, and were pointed at by a group of heavily armed soldiers with spears and bows. If there was any movement, they would be killed on the spot.

There is no international agreement in this era, and the prisoners are killed as soon as they are killed, without any hesitation.

These captives all had two lumps of plateau red on their faces, their hair was messed up, and their bodies were basically dirty.

Some people were even naked, and bright red welts could be seen on their bare skin, obviously they had been tortured on the way to be escorted.

Seeing a group of soldiers urging a girl in red to come in, the captives looked up, then lowered their heads again, thinking about the fate that awaited them.

Geng Yunqiang stood beside Li Yuechen with a horizontal knife in his hand, staring at the prisoner in front of him vigilantly.

Li Yuechen didn't talk nonsense, and said loudly with his hands behind his back: "Is there anyone who can understand Tang dialect? Stand in front!"

Some prisoners in front raised their heads, all of them looked blank, as if they didn't understand.

Laicao, who was standing at the front, suddenly snatched the horsewhip from the soldier next to him, and then directly raised his hand to whip a prisoner in front of him, saying viciously: "Your Highness is asking you something! Can you understand? If His Highness is angry, Alright, I'll kill you bastards!"

Li Yuechen turned his eyes and glanced at him, this guy's kung fu of flattery is getting better and better.

Perhaps because he was afraid of being cut off, one of the captives on the opposite side raised his hand, his voice was a little trembling, and he said in a strange accent: "Return, Your Highness, I can understand!"

"Now you know you're scared? Why didn't you come out just now?" Laicao roared, then raised his horsewhip to whip again.

The prisoner on the other side shrank his body and took two steps back in fright.

"Okay!" Li Yuechen stopped, "Have you been asked to speak?"

"Yes, the villain has overstepped!" Laicao immediately turned his head to admit his mistake, stepped back slightly, and returned the whip in his hand to the soldier just now.

"Come out!" Li Yuechen waved to the prisoner who could speak Tang dialect, "Translate my words to them!"

The other party nodded in agreement: "Yes!"

Li Yuechen took a step forward, and said loudly: "You guys invaded our Great Tang territory and looted our Great Tang people... It stands to reason that this palace should kill you. But now, I can give you a chance to redeem your sins. If you are willing to work hard, I will not kill you, if you perform well, after a few years, maybe you can be released..."

Li Yuechen delivered a speech, simply speaking, through intimidation, or to put it in a better way, to present the facts and make sense.Let them choose to be killed or to work.

For this group of uneducated captives, they would definitely choose the latter.After all, even staying here to work is better than dying.

"In addition, you have to remember! If anyone among them tries to riot or escape... even if there is only one person, then everyone will be punished!" Li Yuechen explained his rules to them little by little.

To be honest, she herself hated the continuous sitting system, but in order to dispel all the unrealistic fantasies in the minds of these prisoners, she could only adopt this simple and crude method.

After delivering the speech, Li Yuechen asked: "If you have any questions, ask them now, and don't wait until it's too late!"

The translator thought for a while and asked cautiously: "Dare to ask Your Highness, is it true that as long as you work hard, you won't kill us?"

Li Yuechen nodded: "The premise is that you don't ask for trouble! If you can do this, I guarantee that you will survive!"

When the translator told them Li Yuechen's answer, the prisoners all looked in disbelief.

Originally, I thought that I would suffer some kind of abuse when I was escorted here, but I didn't expect that it was just doing work. This is simply unimaginable!

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(End of this chapter)